How many of you wonder what is happening on your computer when something seems to be going on but you don't know what?  Happens to me quite frequently.  

I get emails from a site known as GiveAwayOfTheDay.com  and today they have a give-away that offers a much better Task Manager than the task manager that came with my computer.

Each give-away is free for that day only, after that, it will cost you.  I didn't realize that there was a better task manager than what I had, so I'm a bit excited about today's give-away.  Quite frequently, my system runs slow, and the task manager doesn't really give me enough info...hopefully now, I can control this, as one feature lets me temporarily stop whateve is going on.

I would offer more info, but my schedule has been crazy the past few days, and I must be heading out the door, but just wanted to quickly let everyone know about this free product before I leave.  I do believe the give-away lasts until midnight PST.  There is a countdown timer on their site.  Enjoy!  

Here is just a highlight of the info I got in their daily email:

Get several Windows enhancements, get full control of PC, remove Trojans, increase performance.

I was reading a BLOG  about one method of adding your blog to your website.  I would like to also offer you two more methods which may work for you.

1. I have a website for another business I own, and I wanted to add a discussion board.  I created the board, then went into the area that lets me create new pages for my website.  When you add a new page, you get the link either on the left hand side of your web page, or you get those little boxes that go across the top.  My site has the little boxes.  When you choose to create a new page, you are also offered the option of linking an outside page to that box or link, which is what I did.  When someone clicks on that box/link it takes them straight to my discussion board.  You can do the same thing with your blog....just create a link that says "Blog" or title it anyway you choose, and you have a direct link which appears as a page on  your website.
2. For those of you who have software that allows you to create images/banners, you may create you own image, whether it be a text image, or a picture image, then add that picture to your website with a direct link to your Blog.  There are some sites on the web that allows you to create linking banners too, especially if you have have a MySpace page, they have all kinds of sites for creating interesting images/banners which you may add links to.
   
   If you know how to create an image/banner, but do not know how to add links, you can do a search on the web for basic HTML commands.  My favorite way is to use NVU.com software, which is a free HTML editor which works very much like a word processing program.  Go to NVU.com and download the free software, then go to the BLOG I wrote explaining how to use this software.  It took me a short while to figure it out once I used it, but we are all strapped for time, so I thought I would write a quick tutorial for the basics.  I will probably re-write that blog now that I have been using the software for several months and I am now much more familiar with it.  Keep an eye on my blog for the new tutorial.  Hopefully, I will have this done in the next week.  If not, I will get on it after the Thanksgiving Holidays.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Gregory Lohr
   803-461-4210
   SavingYourHome@gmail.com
   Saving Homes Across America
   Saving Lives On America's Highways
   Saving Lives (Join my Better Health Group)
   
   
   
   
   

   
   NOTE:  I recently changed companies for ethical reasons, and will be re-writing my Active Rain page, but need to leave it as is for a short while (an explanation is on my Active Rain page).  I will also be creating a new website, and as most of you know, this can take a bit of time...it will be coming soon!
   
   
   
   
   A Quote:
   
   "To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breatherd easier because you lived.  This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

The 50,000 Dollar Blog!  Ooops, I meant 50,000 Points Blog.

We do get a dollar per point...right?  NO?  
Fine, then I will just go to bed and dream that I do.


I've seen a lot of Milestone Blogs, for hitting the first 10K, 25k, 50k, 100k, and so on.  
So I thought, ok, I'll do one too.  Blogging is about points, right?  Actually, I venture to say it is more about ideas, and business, and networking.  About building relationships and trust, and then...we get rewarded by points, which is all a part of the competitive spirit of Active Rain!
(By the way...this will not be a short blog...so if you are the type that only reads short blogs, you will miss the message)


Active Rain...and 50,000 points...wow!  
It's a combination of work and fun.  I consider my work to be something I enjoy, so it's a lot more fun that work for me.  I don't think I would want to be blogging if I considered it as a chore.  That would make it hard to actually write a blog, or to even think of a topic to write about, or to even be motivated to think about blogging.  But the reality is that blogging, and reading blogs is addictive...which is why I posted the image you are seeing to your right ------->



Although I like writing about the business side when it comes to blogging, helping to save homes can be a bit of a narrow topic at times unless I want to keep linking to newspaper articles telling us the latest thing the gov't is throwing at us...but to be honest with you, they throw so much "junk" out there, and then we learn a bit later that they didn't exactly offer the truth, or implement it properly, or even follow through at all, that I have reached a point of throwing a lot of that information over my shoulder along with the entire salt shaker, as it mostly seems worthless and sometimes geared towards just pacifying the public while they go back into their meetings still searching for how they can explain that they let this mess happen in the first place....or hoping no one really notices at all that they let it happen.




My topic for this blog?  Business...of course!  


BLOGGING HAS PRESENTED A SLIGHT PROBLEM
The problem I have encountered here on Active Rain is that if I attempt to blog about my company and how it benefits other Professionals in the Real Estate Industry, it tends to be viewed as a solicitation.  Actually, when I worked for my previous company, there was some truth to that.  I left that company for ethical reasons, and I recently wrote a BLOG about that topic, so I will spare you the details here, just click here if you are curious (you know you are, but finish this blog first).


You see, I am in the business of helping to save homes from foreclosure, and the company I previously worked with charged an up-front fee for people to join that company, and they encouraged us to recruit for them by paying us half of that fee.  They built a recruiting monster recruiting over 3000 people...but that is all they really did, recruit, which led to lots of ethical problems.  So, the perception with that company was one of solicitation...not a good reputation to have, and one I am glad to be away from.



I MADE A SWITCH
The company I am associated with now does not charge those up front fees.  We help people to save their homes, and we can teach you how to do the same, but without those fees to join.  You can help homeowners to save their homes, make a nice commission to do so, and add extra income to help if you are struggling in today's economy.  This is truly a win-win situation, one which is allowing many Realtors and Mortgage Brokers to stay in the industry they love since we work the down side of this market.  The best part is...it doesn't take a lot of time, allowing you to continue to do the work you love!  It does however, allow you to add an extra service to your business, which brings in extra revenue.



We are building a different kind of company!  
We are actively seeking Professionals in the Real Estate Industry to join us in our mission to save homes.  There are many companies out there today that are scamming homeowners, taking their money and running.  We want to offer homeowners a different kind of company, a company whose consultants are already trusted Professionals in the Real Estate Industry, people who have a reputation that they cherish, and a license they could lose if they cross the standards of ethics they have vowed to uphold.  This fact alone adds a great deal of "trust" to the equation where the homeowner is concerned.


We want people that homeowners feel they will be able to trust...and our advertising will convey that message.  We want people who are dedicated to the Real Estate Industry, who are dedicated to not only helping people achieve that dream of owning a home, but also of keeping that home.  Is that person YOU?


I speak with lots of Realtors and Mortgage Brokers/Loan Officers, and for months they have been telling me that they are always running into people who are in danger of losing their homes.  Why not be the person who can help them save it?  Why send the homeowner to someone else?  If you help to save that home, it is quite possible that you will have created a client for life!  They will always remember how you helped them.  This also tends to lead to more referrals.  If you don't have the time to help them, at least refer them to someone who can...and in the process, you can earn a referral fee.



Call me or email me today....let me share with you how simple our process is.  
Oh, let me spare you part of the suspense...

• You meet someone needing our help.

• You qualify them, making sure they can benefit from our services.

• You take a no obligation application which determines if we can actually help.

• Once approved, you gather their financial information to verify the facts they told you on the application.

Your job is done.  Total time spent could range from 1-2 hours total, depending on how much time you choose to spend building rapport with your client.  

We have expert negotiators who handle the dirty work for us.  They do the negotiating with the lenders.  They save the home, the homeowner is happy, and you are happy.  Next case!












NOTE:  I recently changed companies for ethical reasons, and will be re-writing my Active Rain page, but need to leave it as is for a short while (an explanation is on my Active Rain page).  I will also be creating a new website, and as most of you know, this can take a bit of time...it will be coming soon!

A Quote:
"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breatherd easier because you lived.  This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

The Perfect Picture: Software to help The Perfect Picture:  Software to help when your pics aren't what you expected.

Are you having problems with some of your photo's?  
Not everyone is a great photographer.  We can't all get that perfect lighting, or that perfect angle and in today's economy, it may not be easy to afford a Professional Photographer for that perfect picture.


I read a BLOG recently asking for feedback/critique on a picture of a house.  A couple of replies had to do with the very light areas of the photo, referred to as a "washed out" look.  If you are having trouble taking the kind of pictures you want, there is still hope for you as there are a number of software programs that let you work with specific parts of your picture.


The picture on the left (below) is the picture posted on the blog I mentioned requested critique.  Notice the bright spots.  When I was reading the blog and the comments, I realized that I have software that can help with this.  It is Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10.  My software is several years old, so I am sure it has been updated several times, but with this software, I am able to take those light areas and darken them up, or if need be, I can play with various other elements to help improve the picture quality.  


In this particular shot, I chose to darken up the light areas of the house (see pic on the right), which would be the roof and the walls.  There is also a light area in the grass just in front of the house and I chose to darken that just a bit too, helping to eliminate some of the washed out appearance.  True, this is not perfect, but realize, this is the first time I have played with this function of this software.  With a little effort, I am sure I could make this look much better.  I wanted to post this information to let those who read this know that you can easily edit your pictures.  I found this program to be user friendly as I was able to quickly figure out how to accomplish this task.  







The picture below (left) was on the website of our Active Rain blogger who was requesting critique.  I chose to darken the roof just a bit, but I also choose to darken the lawn, bringing out the green in the grass.  While playing with the software, I learned that I could totally remove the sidewalk and the program filled in the area with grass perfectly.  I couldn't tell the picture had been tampered with.  I didn't post that particular picture, but just wanted to let you know that is just another of the functions you can perform with this software.  







Below...I just added a border to the picture of this house, trying to jazz it up a bit.  The program has many borders available and the colors can be altered as well as the various levels of thickness.  A lot can be done with this software.  I realized today I need to play with this software a lot more, it has lots of possibilities.






If any of you choose to purchase the software I used to edit these photos, and have trouble figuring out how to do what I did, just write or call, I'll be glad to help.  If I get enough requests, I will write a blog with instructions.



While on the subject of software...how many of you have been looking for software that allows you to pull a person out of the picture so that you can add that person to a different picture.  If that question seems a bit vague, just look at my picture here on Active Rain.  I pulled myself out of one picture, and placed myself into another picture.  I can easily change that background over and over again, and I have already done so about 10 times and now have pictures I can rotate here.  I can have a different house in the background every day if I want to.


To do this, I am using Photo Impact Pro (Version 10).  Rather than pulling myself out of the picture, I actually remove the background, and insert another background, or once the background has been removed, I can drag my pic over to another picture.  Perhaps you have a picture of a house you would like to use, but don't like the surroundings of the house and want to get rid of the background?  Now you can.  You may want to leave the shrubs in the front though, or you would have blank white spots where you removed them.


I bought both of the above programs several years ago.
MS Digital Image Suite cost me $48.57 while Photo Impact Pro cost me $65.07.  I got both programs at Sams Club.  I've seen the Digital Image Suite at much higher costs in other stores.  I am not sure how much these programs cost today.  I assume they are still available.  



As a side note, I am sure some of you have been reading the various blogs about copyright issues.  In staying in accordance with the rules of Active Rain and also in accordance with copyright laws, although Mindy did request a critique of her photo, I did ask permission to make adjustments and to post her photo in this blog.  

The Real Estate Industry is a truly interesting creature.  It has it's ups and it's downs.  During the up years, everyone flourishes, even those who don't really work hard.  The down years, however,  separate the men from the boys and the women from the girls.  Only the strong survive!


The down side to this though is that during the really tough times, some of the strong may not survive either.  They may work hard, yet it simply just does not work out for them.  I'm writing about this because I may be able to help.  But then I run into that one little problem I see people talking about all the time here on Active Rain...the blog that is perceived as a "solicitation."  This is far from that though and I hope if you are concerned that you may become one of many Real Estate Professionals who may have to find "another job," that you take the time to read this.


I am a part of the Real Estate Industry that is helping people to save their homes!  Lots of Realtors and Loan Officers are joining forces with us, adding this service to their business, thus providing them with the extra income to allow them to stay in the industry.  The best part about what we do though is that it doesn't take a lot of your time.  We have people who do the dirty work for us, our job is to find those who need help, do the initial interview and take the application, which we turn over to those who do that dirty work I mentioned a moment ago.


Here is the important part that you need to understand though....


I recently changed companies (mostly for ethical reasons - I wrote a BLOG about it).
The company I previously represented charged a rather hefty up front fee to become a part of company.  The company I represent today does not charge such fees!  There is no cost to you other than a small amount of time to learn our procedures.  You will want to read the BLOG I mentioned a moment ago, as it offers details regarding  the main differences between the two companies.  I can now provide much better services to homeowners than I could before.  Previously, I could only help those who were two months or more behind on their mortgage payments (Loss Mitigation).  Now, I can help those who have not fallen behind yet, but know that their loans will be adjusting soon (Loan Modification).  This helps to save their credit.


On the back side, there are some homeowners whose homes cannot be saved, and I am putting together a network of Realtors who specialize in Short Sales and can help them exit the home if necessary.  If you want to become a part of The Short Sale Network, I need to know who you are though.  Qualifications:  You need to be experienced at completing Short Sales successfully.  If you are not experienced and haven't had success the homeowner will lose the home and their credit.  This is what we are trying to avoid.


Are you curious about our services and whether or not you may want to add this to your business platform, then send me an email or give me a call.  We are here to help people save their homes...and to  provide Professionals in this industry an additional source of income...helping them to stay in this industry.  This is the perfect add-on for your business!  Call and see why for yourself!  And remember, there is no cost to you to add this to your business!!!



NOTE:  My AR page has not been changed yet...I am in the process of rewriting my pages and also in recreating websites, etc.  My AR page will probably be the last that I work on....because I am getting a lot of contact from reps with our previous company (because AR helped my page to get ranked very high)...and lots of these reps are seeking out other company consultants because they haven't been able to reach the corporate offices and are seeking answers as to why.  They are finding my AR page thanks to the high search engine placement AR has helped me to attain!  Therefore, I will give them a couple of more weeks to find me.  Once I change my page and links, they won't be able to find me anymore.

Do you need to put a Watermark on your pictures?
Last week I posted about free software that would allow you to do this. This week, the same website is offering an even better program for watermarking.
Here is the web address:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/watermark-factory-2/

On this site you will find a description of the program, and below that you will find comments from those who downloaded the software. As with any site that allows comments, you will always find those who have to complain no matter what, and you will find that on this site also. Just ignore them.
I found comments #19, and #39 - #44 to be useful comments.


This software is only free for one day only, and I belive it is free until midnight PST. The site tells you the amount of time you have left. I know some of you Realtors will like this software as you can protect the images you post to your website and blogs. Enjoy!

Being free, it comes as is without any tech support. The regular cost is $49.00

Giveaway of the Day
Batch Image Watermarker


I receive an email each day of free software give-aways...available only until midnight. Todays (10/23/08) is a Batch Image Watermarker. For those of you who want to protect your images with watermarks, you may want to look at this software. I will offer a link at the end of this blog, go read the details, and read the various comments to see if this is something you may want or need, and if there is anything for you to be concerned about. I've stayed away from some of the software give-aways because of a few comments before, so read those carefully.

You may visit the site at:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/batch-image-watermarker-35/


EDIT:Special ended, but they are running a one day (10/24/08) special price of $9.99. I posted a link in the comments section below.

I learned 4 or 5 years ago that I was on my way to diabetes. That was a bit scary, as I lost both of my dad's parents when I was young to diabetes. One of our Christian Radio stations has a lot of health shows and they had a weekly seriers on diabetes. Doctors explained how people get diabetes, ways to prevent it, and ways to reverse it. By the way, this is information you don't usually hear from the medical industry, but there are some organizations that are helping people with diabetes reverse this disease.

This blog isn't about diabetes though, but I wanted to set the stage for how this big time chocoholic broke a lifelong habit. It's not that chocolate is dangerous, like cigarettes, but that I had a really bad habit. You would not believe how much chocolate I ate. It was so bad that when I visited my family for holidays, they would only set out a little bit of chocolate and hide the rest of it so they could have some. It didn't matter what form the chocolate came in, it could be candy, cakes, brownies, it didn't matter, I just couldn't resist, and I would keep eating until it was all gone.




Then it happened, I learned a very simple technique for quiting a bad habit like chocolate. While listening to the diabetes program I mentioned earlier, one of the doctors talked about people like me who have habits like chocolate they want to break, and he shared the simple secret to breaking this habit. It is a simple little mind trick, and I quit eating chocolate that day and haven't touched it in years.

Ok...I have tried a couple of "healthy" versions of chocolate, without all the junk in it, with really good ingredients, but I still get that massive desire to eat it all at once, so that really doesn't work. Scratch that idea.



So what is the secret? Here is what the doctor said...

First, he talked about how people decide to quit a bad habit (and he used chocolate as his example, but mentioned that it could be soft drinks, or any number of other things), but they just seem to always fail in the long run. Then he asked this one all important question...

He asked if we wanted to keep on quitting chocolate over and over and over, or did we want to quit just one time? He elaborated on this point by saying that a person decides to quit chocolate, then goes to visit someone, or winds up in line at a grocery store, or it's the holidays, and you are faced with the temptation, and about 50% of the time you wind up giving in to the temptation. The problem is that the decision to quit really wasn't made in the first place. There was no real commitment.

The trick is to make the decision to quit. Make that decision one time, not be faced with making the decision every time you see chocolate...then, when you are faced with the temptation, you simply tell youself that you have already made that decision, you don't have to make it again. Wow...it really is that simple. Every time I see chocolate...(for instance, I love chocolate pie), and when we go to Golden Coral, I really want some, but when I am faced with that temptation, I remind myself that I have already made that decision, and walk away. I don't have to make that decision ever again. My family has been so shocked that this worked. I was too!

Let's start with his best sermon ever...

He said that he spent a great deal of time preparing for this sermon. The topic was inspiring, one that he liked, and his preparation went without a hitch. He delivered the sermon and felt it was the best job he had ever done. Needless to say, he was proud of the work he had done for the Lord.

But just like in the sports world, where a team plays its best game, only to follow that up with their worst game ever, so it happened that his sermon the following week turned out to be what he felt was the worst sermon the he ever delivered.

He mentioned that his prepartion time was constantly interrupted, and he just had trouble focusing and getting into the right frame of mind....you know the story. When we do great, we sometimes fall into a complacent frame of mind. The time came to deliver the sermon. He felt he wasn't ready, and didn't feel at all confident and after the sermon felt it was the worst of his career.



Here is where the story gets interesting...

This Pastor mentioned that over the years he had developed a unique tracking system, one that he felt told him how effective each sermon was over time. I won't go into the details for the sake of keeping this blog a bit shorter, but it was quite interesting how he tracked this process.

As he tracked these two sermons, this is what he found out. The BEST sermon that he had ever delivered turned out to be one of his worst when he looked at the tracking results. The WORST sermon that he had ever delivered turned out to be one of his best.



And he proceeded to explain why this happened...

After the first sermon, he felt he did a good job, an excellent job! He felt confident and walked proud thinking about the good job that "he" had done. But after the second sermon, he felt that he had failed in his job as a Pastor. From the moment he finished the second sermon and all through the week, he prayed about that sermon and he asked that the Lord would move upon those who heard it and would produce the results that God intended.



The first sermon was done under his own power, without prayer. He felt he had done a good job and didn't ask God for help. The second sermon, although delivered under his own power once again, was followed with fervent prayer. The first sermon produced no results. The second sermon however produced lots of fruit. What a great lesson on "why we need to pray!

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